The purificatory role of the five products of the cow in Hinduism
- 1 January 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Ecology of Food and Nutrition
- Vol. 3 (1) , 21-34
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.1974.9990358
Abstract
The modern Hindu use of the “five products of the cow” (milk, curd, ghi, urine, and dung) in ritual purification is examined. The five products’ value in such purification today, as in ancient India, is clearly linked to the sanctity of the cow. The earliest Indian literary reference to the five products being used in ritual purification, moreover, dates from the same historical period that the sacred cow concept itself developed. Thus it is almost certain that the rise of the sacred cow concept led to the use of the five products of the cow in ritual purification, a classic example of the influence of religious beliefs on the use of food and other resources.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Food of the Gods in Chhattisgarh: Some Structural Features of Hindu RitualSouthwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1970
- Ritual Pollution as an Integrator of Caste and ReligionJournal of Asian Studies, 1964
- The Structure of Sinhalese Healing RitualsJournal of Asian Studies, 1964
- Caste and Kinship in Central IndiaPublished by University of California Press ,1960